The Man Beyond the Ring
I don’t know a thing about Lanterns...
And that’s the best scenario I could’ve asked for.
Sunday, August 16, Lanterns premiered on HBO to DC diehards and casual fans alike in the long-awaited TV adaptation. And if DCU fans felt anything like I did, then the wait was worth it.
Lanterns opens with a young John Stewart Jr. (Cairo Cash Lee) watching a younger Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) on TV, admiring his bravery with inspiration and aspiration—his young eyes soaking up the possibility of one day becoming Earth’s newest hero.
A Green Lantern.
But a feeling quickly stirs in the air as John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) arrives home. The brothers are afraid of the consequences of being up late watching TV, but young John is steadfast.
What feels like pending doom—as Sr. places an apple atop Jr.’s head and aims a gun at him—turns into a disturbing, yet prideful, lesson in fear and the absence of it.
Flash forward to 2016, and a grown-up John (Aaron Pierre) is in the throes of training as a Lantern, and it’s going nowhere fast. But what starts as a comedic back and forth between reluctant trainer and impatient trainee turns into John and Hal investigating a suspicious case that is more complicated than it appears.
And complications continue to follow John in the form of a one-night stand with an enticing stranger that turns out to be an (unknowingly) adulterous encounter with Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), the wife of William Macon (Garret Dillahunt)—a self-righteous influential figure in Nebraska with an energy that oozes anything but friendly.
One thing that instantly stands out with William is his drive to “protect the planet from anybody not born on it,” the sinister edge to his concern feeling more self-aggrandizing than patriotic. That edge cuts deep as the conversation between him and John lends itself to metaphors that reveal he knows about the night with Zoe.
And as the audience begins to question William’s motives, Hal and John get his permission to interview a suspected terrestrial in police custody, and his daughter-in-law, Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald), leads the way.
Throughout the entire episode, Hal questions Kerry’s investigative intuition every step of the way regarding the murders. But in his gravitas and performative arrogance, she spots the truth.
And during a conversation with John, she drops a pin on the balloon that is John’s lifelong respect for Hal and his fearlessness; it’s not with a lack of fear that he moves, but through extreme loneliness.
This truth becomes the emotional anchor of Episode 1, connecting Hal’s and John’s fates on the thread of bravery, courage, and fearlessness, revealing the harsh reality of meeting your heroes and the tragic reality of maintaining a hero’s image.
Even Our Heroes Pay a Price
What does a hero make?
In his interrogation with the subject, Hal’s existential crisis is yanked beyond his grasp, and the truth explodes in front of him. While he survived the blast, using the Lantern shield to protect John and Kerry, the knowledge of the weight of being a hero cannot be unheard.
How much does it cost to be Earth’s sole hero?
How long can you save everyone with a smile before crumbling under the reality of knowing those you save may not love you back?
10 years later, John returns to Nebraska—cold, desolate, and abandoned. A pale and frigid echo of what it used to be.
He meets with Sheriff Kerry, exchanging small talk that feels misplaced within the forefront of a chilling and death-like environment. Then the mood changes.
Somber.
Heartbreaking.
We see Hal sitting alone, frozen and without his ring—showing the audience that maybe the cost is too high for one hero to afford to pay.
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Kivonshe—founder of So There’s That—is a film & TV critic who explores compelling storytelling, fandom relationships, character psychology, and the impact of entertainment media through film reviews, episodic recaps, and in-depth theme analysis.